Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The IAN FLEMING U.S. hardcover first editions

The classic Ian Fleming UK first editions are well-known and have even been reproduced on postcards, stamps, and in new collector sets. So I thought I'd share here instead the U.S. first edition hardcovers from my collection, because I figure people haven't really seen these and I like some of these covers. While less valuable than the UK editions, it's been my experience that these are actually harder to find, especially in Fine condition. One curiosity is the U.S. edition of Goldfinger matches the UK edition exactly, except for the publisher name, Macmillan, on the spine and title page. Anyway, enjoy.

Publication:Casino Royale - Macmillian, March 23, 1954.Live and Let Die - Macmillian, April 1955.Moonraker - Macmillian, September 20, 1955.Diamonds Are Forever - Macmillian, October 1956.From Russia With Love - Macmillian, September 3, 1957.Dr. No - Macmillian, June 24, 1958.Goldfinger - Macmillian, August 18, 1959.For Your Eyes Only - Viking Press, 1960.Thunderball - Viking Press, April 24, 1961.The Spy Who Loved Me - Viking Press, 1962.On Her Majesty's Secret Service - New American Library, September 1963.You Only Live Twice - New American Library, August 1964.The Man With The Golden Gun - New American Library, August 23, 1965.Octopussy - New American Library, 1966.

9 comments:

Ah, now to the meat and potatoes! Excellent! Thank you, John. Weren't Macmillan's Goldfinger's actually printed by Cape, but perhaps rejected for some reason? I can't recall the story behind it. Does the US printing technically pre-date the UK one?

Most of these were easier to find in America than the UK firsts--at least at library book sales and used bookstores and the sorts of places I was able to scour as a kid at the tale end of the Pre-Internet Age. I even volunteered at my town's library booksale every summer in hopes of spotting some Fleming treasure in advance. I was quite lucky on that front, one year getting my hands on the rarest of the Signet box sets and another the Viking Thunderball you picture.

I amassed quite a few 1st Americans throughout middle school and high school: everything pictured except for the entire second row and LALD. A local library had a well-worn LALD 1st US on its shelf, whose protected dust jacket I often eyed jealously, but sadly they never retired it for their booksales in my days there. My CR is jacketless and my Moonraker is poor, the jacket having bonded to the boards... but because of the specific memories associated with collecting them at that time, they're worth more to me than fine copies would be. Strangely, I never acquired any more First Americans since high school. I suppose I really ought to make a point of completing my collection nowadays... (But the Internet kind of took the fun out of it.)

I am trying to complete my set, which has the gun and girl silhouette with a colored box around each on the cover. Most jackets are brown or greyist blue that I have so far, and have been printed by Macmillan, Viking and NAL. I have not been able to find:

Live and Let DieDiamonds Are ForeverFor Your Eyes OnlyOn Her Majesty's Secret Serviceand Octopussy and The Living Daylights

The five books you mention, LALD, DAF, FYEO, OHMSS, and Octopussy were not available in those 'girl and gun silhouette' editions.

Octopussy had a BCE with a jacket matching the first US edition, and so did TSWLM, YOLT, and TMWTGG.

DAF was eventually released as a BCE with a dust jacket showing the 1971 movie poster.

LALD, FYEO, and OHMSS never had a US BCE, which is odd because LALD had at least thirty printings of the Signet paperback, and OHMSS had at least ten NAL hardcover printings.

If you have seen the Macmillan reprints from the late sixties with 'A James Bond Mystery' on the jacket, it is interesting to note that CR, MR, FRWL, DN, and GF are of the same bindings as the 'girl and gun' BCE's They have jagged edges on the papers, and the boards are usually black with a one inch strip of colored (usually red, yellow, or blue) paper at the front and back edges. I have a CR 'girl and gun' with solid grey boards, a YOLT 'girl and gun' with solid blue boards, and a YOLT BCE with the US first edition jacket with solid yellow boards.

The LALD and DAF editions in the 'James Bond Mystery' set have solid black boards and smooth edges on the papers. The pages appear to be photographic reprints (apart from the title and 'also by the same author' pages) on larger paper. The 1971 DAF BCE has jagged edges on the paper and a different number of pages than the US first and 'James Bond Mystery' editions.

GF and TB each had a BCE in the 1980's with cover art that was reminiscent of the US Gardner covers. GF has a blue front cover with Bond walking, and TB has a red cover with Bond seated holding a pistol. Both covers say 'Featuring James Bond Master Spy' and both have blank white back covers apart from the catalog number at the bottom. GF is3409 and TB is 3415. If any of the others were published in that format, I have never seen them.

As far as the girl and gun BCE's, nine of the books appeared in that set, and each one had two different dust jackets. I came to that conclusion from years of searching and looking on ebay. I wish I had a way to scan the covers and post them for you. Here goes: